People

Annie L. Owens

Counsel

Owens, Annie L.
Annie L. Owens is a counsel in the Litigation/Controversy Department, and a member of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation and Government and Regulatory Litigation Practice Groups. She joined the firm in 2008.

Before joining the firm, Ms. Owens was a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States Department of Justice. She drafted briefs in opposition to certiorari, wrote memoranda recommending the appeal of adverse decisions, and briefed and argued a case concerning the Vienna Convention before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

After completing her legal education, Ms. Owens served as a law clerk to the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, then-Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Practice

Ms. Owens’s practice focuses on appellate litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States and the federal courts of appeals, as well as litigation and dispositive motions in the federal district courts in cases raising complex or novel legal questions. Ms. Owens has handled matters involving a wide range of federal-law issues, including constitutional law, federal preemption of state law, environmental law, Indian law, election law, criminal law, intellectual property and bankruptcy. She has argued cases before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits.

In addition to her litigation experience, Ms. Owens has counseled clients on policy and regulatory issues, including preemption, pharmaceutical and health care issues and compliance with trade regulations.

Ms. Owens also maintains an active pro bono practice and has significant experience in issues related to habeas corpus, AEDPA and capital litigation.

Representative Matters

Ms. Owens’s representative experience includes: 

  • Playing a lead role in winning summary judgment for a global aerospace company in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in a case successfully challenging a state law as preempted under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954;
  • Representing the Tohono O’odham Nation, an Arizona tribe, in complex litigation arising from the Department of the Interior’s obligation to take land into trust for the Nation, including seeking to uphold the US District Court for the District of Arizona’s decision that an Arizona statute seeking to prevent the trust acquisition was preempted by federal law, and defending Interior’s decision to take the land into trust against an APA challenge;
  • Playing a major role in drafting merits briefs before the Supreme Court of the United States, including United States v. Tohono O’odham Nation (2011), which presented a significant question of federal jurisdiction, and Trevino v. Thaler (2013), a capital case raising a substantial procedural question related to ineffective assistance of counsel at the state habeas stage in Texas;
  • Drafting Supreme Court amicus briefs in Maryland v. King (2013) (constitutionality of DNA profiling under the Fourth Amendment); Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris (2012) (constitutionality of dog sniffs under the Fourth Amendment); Smith v. Cain (2012) (capital case involving Brady v. Maryland issue); Padilla v. Kentucky (2010) (ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to advise on immigration consequences of a guilty plea); and Bilski v. Kappos (2010) (intellectual property/business-method patents);
  • Representing two FBI agents in a high-profile Bivens action pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit;
  • Drafting a brief on behalf of a Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate in an Eleventh Circuit appeal of a high-profile campaign-finance decision;
  • Representing a major insurance company in a successful Third Circuit bankruptcy appeal related to proposed settlement of asbestos claims;
  • Representing a Virginia death-row inmate before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and before the Supreme Court of the United States at the certiorari stage;
  • Briefing and arguing a pro bono direct appeal of a criminal conviction for wire fraud and bank fraud before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in which the government confessed error on one count of conviction.

Prior Experience

Ms. Owens was previously an associate at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C. in Washington DC, where her practice focused on telecommunications regulation and litigation.

While in law school, Ms. Owens served as a summer legal fellow on the United States Senate Judiciary Committee staff of Senator Herb Kohl, where she wrote legal memoranda and drafted reports and talking points on constitutional questions, political issues, and judicial nominations.

Ms. Owens has also volunteered on several political campaigns for which she has worked on voter protection and election-law issues, including John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign in Wisconsin and Rep. John Yarmuth’s successful congressional campaign for Kentucky’s third district in 2006. 

Professional Activities

Ms. Owens serves on the Leadership 35 Committee to the National Women’s Law Center, a high-level advisory committee of talented leaders designed to provide the Center with advice and support on critical issues that affect women and their families.

Ms. Owens is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Eleventh and District of Columbia Circuits; and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Practices

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Education

JD, summa cum laude, Marquette University School of Law, 2005, Senior Articles Editor, Marquette Law Review

AB, Political Science and History, Brown University, 2002

Bar Admissions

District of Columbia

Kentucky

Wisconsin

Clerkships

The Hon. Carolyn Dineen King, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2005 - 2006